UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Catala Brings World to Basketball Team
Yvonne Catala was born in New Hampshire, but spent the majority of her childhood in Jamaica and Haiti.
Her father, Pierre, was born in France, and her mother, Ellie, in West Germany. Her family moved from Haiti to College Station, Tex., five years ago, but not before taking an extended tour of Europe and a six-month tour of the United States and Canada in a motor home.
Yvonne now lives in Irvine, where she is the leading scorer and rebounder on the UC Irvine women’s basketball team.
The basis of an interesting biography?
Catala doesn’t believe so.
“I’m sorry, I guess I’m a pretty boring person,” Catala said. “I don’t really have that much to say.”
Although this soft-spoken 18-year-old freshman is not an infinite source of verbal wisdom, that makes little difference to those who follow Catala’s accomplishments on the court.
Catala, a 6-foot-1 post player, is averaging a team-high 13.5 points and 7.4 rebounds a game. In the past three games, Catala has averaged 22 points, and has made 70.5% of her shots.
“She is having a banner year for us,” assistant coach Jean Ashen said. “We felt she’d come in and make an impact, but she’s played beyond our expectations.”
Unfortunately for Catala and the rest of the Anteaters, Irvine (1-7 overall) is off to one of its worst starts in the program’s history. But unlike some of her teammates, Catala does not seem overly bothered by the team’s record.
“It’s very disappointing because you work so hard and really don’t seem to get anything out of it,” Catala said. “But I think we just need to play together more. Eight of us are newcomers to the team; that’s the main thing. Next year we’ll have it more together.” Catala’s optimistic outlook is one of her greatest strengths, Ashen said.
“She is a very poised young lady who’s used to dealing with (adverse) situations more than any other players on our team,” Ashen said. “Yvonne’s a world traveler. She’s lived in places that had (great hardships), so she doesn’t complain like some of the others might.”
Catala moved from the United States to Kingston, Jamaica, when she was 5 after her father accepted a telecommunications job with the United Nations. After 3 1/2 years, the Catalas moved to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where Yvonne and her two sisters attended a small school.
Even though Haiti’s economy was severely depresed, Catala said her memories of Haiti--swimming in the Caribbean, riding horses on a neighbor’s ranch, going to French-speaking movies in the town’s only theater--are good ones.
Before moving back to the United States, the Catalas adopted a Haitian child, Nadine, now 8. “Her mother asked us to take her,” Catala said. “She wanted her daughter to have a better life.”
Despite the fact that Catala had not played organized sports before high school, she immediately caught the attention of physical education teachers when she enrolled at Texas A&M; Consolidated High School as a freshman. Of course, being 5-11 as a ninth-grader often does that.
“We just happened to see her in the hall one day, and here at Consolidated we hadn’t had too many tall girls like that,” said Catala’s high school coach, Sue Kennedy. “I said, ‘If you’re interested, why don’t you come out and play basketball?’ She said, ‘Well, I’d have to go ask my mom.” I said ‘Why don’t you call her right now?”
Because of Catala’s virtual non-sports background, her skills were weak at the start. But, Kennedy said, she has worked harder to improve than anyone she has coached.
“After every practice, Yvonne would stay an extra hour at least working on her game,” Kennedy said. “On weekends, she’d call me up and ask to have the gym opened so she could practice.”
By her senior year, Catala was averaging 29 points and 16.2 rebounds. In a victory over Consolidated’s biggest rivals, Mayde Creek of Houston, Catala scored a school-record 44 points--the number of her jersey, both in high school and at UCI.
“As soon as I got to 44, I screamed at my coach to get me out,” Catala said. “I’d been wanting to score the same number as my jersey for so long.”
One of Texas’ top recruits, Catala narrowed her choices to Texas A&M; and Irvine. She chose Irvine, she said, because “I wanted to get out of Texas and because Irvine was so pretty.”
Nice scenery is important for Catala, an aspiring painter. Unlike many of her teammates, Catala does not enjoy watching or discussing sports outside of practice. Her favorite pastime? Situating herself on a lone, grassy knoll near campus where she can paint in quiet.
“I don’t live and die sports,” Catala said. “I don’t even like watching sports. I’d be the last one to ask anyone to a sports event. Sometimes people on the team say, ‘Hey, you wanna go see the guys (Irvine men’s team) play?’ I say no way! I’ve had enough basketball today. . . .
“If I’m not the one doing the sport, I’d rather be doing something else.”
A worldly approach, for sure.
Irvine notes
The Anteater women play host to Fermin University of Greenville, S.C., at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Bren Center, then open their Big West Conference schedule Tuesday night, playing host to University of Pacific at 5 p.m. . . . Former Irvine standout Natalie Crawford is currently playing for a professional women’s team in Paris, averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds. . . . The Irvine men open Big West play Tuesday night at the Bren Center against Utah State at 7:30, following the women’s game. . . . All-American swimmer Brian Pajer qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. swimming championships (March 22-24 in Indianapolis) in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 55.56 seconds. . . . The men’s swim team (3-0 in dual meets) and the women’s team (3-1) will play host to Air Force at noon on Tuesday at Heritage Park.